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Improvising on drums contains a “great filter” - a chasm with a narrow passage across. On the surface, it seems simple, inevitable that if we simply practice enough rudiments and listen to enough drums, we’ll be able to cross it. And given enough time, that’s probably true.
But we underestimate the challenge.
Crossing this chasm requires doing 2 things at once: combining “asymmetric” phrases - phrases that cross the bar, or at least “syncopate”, and keeping the “big beat” in our heads.
If you think this is easy, try clapping 4 quarter notes, with beat “1” a normal clap, and beats 2-4 with the back of the lead hand, and singing combinations of 2 and 4 16ths - choose any syllable you want to represent each, but I might humbly recommend “2” and “4”. Now, you have to syncopate, which is to say make phrases including odd numbers of “2s”. And you also have to land confidently on “1” after 4 bars of 4/4.
If you can do this, the rest of drumming is just adding technique. Obviously a lot of steps, but you’ve cleared the “hardest filter” to improvisation.
If you can’t, you’ll struggle to improvise interesting phrases. You’ll be able to play “pre-composed” licks and loops, and you might be able to improvise “non-syncopated” rhythms that never violate the quarter note downbeat.
But fear not, because I’ll tell you 2 reassuring things.
The first is that practically everybody struggles with this. It requires practice. Just like riding a bike, it’s a complex skill. Even musicians who seem to have been able to do it from birth likely learned it early in life from exposure to music. If this is hard for you, that doesn’t mean there’s something “wrong” with you. It’s hard for everybody at first.
The second is you can learn to do it.
And you don’t need to spend years tackling rudiments, though in certain arrangements they obviously help.
No. We think we have a faster way. An easier way. A more fun way.
“We”, by the way, is I, with friend of the channel JP Bouvet. And credit-where-credit-is-due, when we set out to tackle this problem in parallel, it was he who developed the easier, more intuitive method. And that’s why I’ve adopted his method as a step in my teaching.
He calls it the 2s and 4s.
Any phrase that “syncopates” (which is to say “includes upbeats”) at the 8th note level can be deconstructed into groups of 2 and 4. And you can build any syncopated phrase at the 8th note level with them.
That’s why the key to learning to improvise on drums might boil down to understanding deeply how 2s and 4s interact, and memorizing - “getting in your ear” - their sound.
In this video, JP and I attempt to give you a crash course into the system: to show you how to “test” your ability to syncopate, then show you the basics for adopting this system.
And if you want to go further, JP’s Paradiddle Course, and my coaching both include more advanced, comprehensive versions.
Hope you enjoy! Below is the complete mini-conversation with JP.